A/N - Thank you for all the follows, favorites and reviews, I really do appreciate it - I hope you're enjoying reading this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

When Eponine got back from breakfast she was surprised to find the apartment empty. She had fully expected Cosette to be there to regale her with fun filled tales from her dinner with Marius's grandfather. No doubt she would have to look forward to later.

As she headed for her room she began to sort through the mail she picked up on her way into the building. Most of it was for Cosette. One of the two letters addressed to Eponine looked like a bank statement. She didn't even bother opening it, she didn't need to be reminded that she didn't have any money.

As soon as she saw the prison stamp on the back of the second envelope she knew who it was from.

The first prison stamped letter had arrived, totally out of the blue, almost six months ago. She had recognized her mother's scrawl on the front of the envelope right away.

She claimed that she had changed, spouted some crap about being in therapy and how she wanted to make amends for all her years of shitty parenting. Eponine didn't buy it; she knew her mother and she knew she was incapable of change. She was a manipulative, devious woman, and Eponine had no doubt that her sudden interest in her was part of some plan to try and get early parole. She'd never written back to any of the letters, she hadn't even opened the most recent ones.

Eponine opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and shoved the latest unopened letter in with the dozen or so more that were already in there.

She did have some happy memories of her parents, from when they were all together in Montfermeil, before the Inn went bust. They were pretty good parents back then; they read her stories at bedtime, went to all her parent-teacher conferences, gave her great Christmases and actually cared about her general well-being. Everything changed after they lost the Inn. Whilst her father was drinking away the last of their money he had fallen in with a group of career criminals. Within weeks he and her mother were an integral part of their well oiled crime machine. You name it they were involved in it; counterfeit goods, stealing cars, drug dealing. As long as it was against the law they was all over it.

Their new lifestyle choices meant that Eponine ended up spending most of her childhood being dragged from pillar to post. Sometimes her parents would disappear for weeks on end. Initially they would leave her with neighbors but as time wore on they would just leave her to her own devices and she had no other choice but to learn how to look after herself.

They had both been in and out of prison over the years, but it was a home invasion gone wrong which saw their whole motley crew handed 20 year sentences.

She'd never gone to visit them in jail; instead she'd changed her last name from Thénardier to Jondrette, worked her ass off to get a scholarship to school and had done everything in her power to be nothing like them.

For a long time Eponine had really hated them, hated the fact that it was their blood that ran through her veins. But now she didn't feel anything for them, she didn't see the point in wasting her emotions on them, after all, they hadn't wasted any of theirs on her.

She kicked the dresser drawer closed and walked towards the bathroom. It was only when she passed her mirror that she realized both her hands were clasped tightly over her stomach.

Grantaire managed to not meddle for two days. Which was actually two days longer than Eponine expected, so she did have to give him some credit.

She should have known something was up when he called and asked if she wanted to come over and watch a movie. She couldn't remember the last time he had voluntarily organized any sort of activity that didn't involve drinking.

"So what did you do today?" he asked as Eponine sat on the floor scanning through his somewhat diverse DVD collection.

"I went to work, not that you would be familiar with that concept."

"Now, now Eponine, don't be hating just because I'm a kept man."

"A kept man? I don't think being entirely supported by your parents counts as being a kept man."

Grantaire's parents were art dealers who spent the majority of their time swanning around the continent. They would come back into town a couple of times of year just to make sure that Grantaire was still alive. They had apparently made a deal with him that as long as he managed to make it through university and actually graduate they would continue to support him until he 'established himself'. Four years on from graduation they were still paying his rent and sending him a weekly allowance.

"Hey, as long as Michael and Helena are happy to keep the money coming my way then I'm more than happy to keep accepting it," he said.

"You're seriously such a dickhead." Eponine replied. She'd long given up even attempting to lecture him on why he should maybe do more with his life than just live off his parents. "You wanna just watch The Avengers? I can't deal with looking through your DVDs anymore."

Then the door knocked.

"The Avengers is fine," Grantaire said, getting up from the couch. "Let me just go see who that is."

A minute later Enjolras stormed into the living room, with a book tucked under each arm and a giant stack of papers in his hands. Enjolras never just walked anywhere, he was constantly strutting about with intent, like he was always on some very serious mission.

"I've had the most ridiculous day... oh," he said, suddenly stopping in his tracks when confronted with Eponine sprawled out on Grantaire's floor. "Hi Eponine, I didn't realize you were here."

Eponine scrambled to her feet. She'd spent the past few days trying to prepare herself to see him, and there he was, with his blonde curls and furrowed brow, standing right in front of her. She began to panic; she was so not ready to see him. She was entirely unprepared for this.

"Would you look at that Eponine," Grantaire said, walking up behind Enjolras and draping his arm round his shoulder. "Enjolras is here, what are the chances?"

"You asked me to come over Grantaire," Enjolras said, looking highly confused and vastly unimpressed.

"That's beside the point, what matters is that we're all here together." he grabbed the papers and books from Enjolras and set them down on the coffee table. "Now, I'm just going to run to the store and get some things, so why don't you two just chat amongst yourselves."

"Grantaire, what are you talking about?" Enjolras said. He looked entirely lost, Eponine almost felt sorry for him.

"I'll be gone for around 20 minutes, which is enough time to tell anyone anything, wouldn't you agree Eponine?"

Eponine glared at him. It was probably a good thing he was leaving as she may have actually killed him otherwise.

"Bye friends!" he yelled as he practically ran out the door.

And then he was gone, leaving Eponine and Enjolras standing in silence in his living room. It was one of those awful, overwhelming silences; Eponine felt like there was no way Enjolras couldn't hear her heart attempting to thump it's way out of her chest.

"So, eh, that was weird." Enjolras said, looking exceptionally uncomfortable.

"Yeah," Eponine replied, " definitely weird."

"Is he high or something?"

"Um no, at least I don't think so."

"Hmm," Enjolras replied, not looking at all convinced.

And then the silence was back. Eponine had never felt so awkward in her entire life. Enjolras sighed and started to look around the room, making it perfectly clear that the feeling was mutual. In the end she finally bit the bullet and spoke because she couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Listen Enjolras, I'm actually glad you're here."

"Really? Why?" he said, looking genuinely shocked that she claimed to be pleased to be in his company.

"Right, well, OK, here's the thing," she began, but the minute she started to speak she felt like someone was holding a blowtorch in front of her face. She tried to take a few deep breaths, but instead of helping they just made her feel even more suffocated. "Are you hot? Like, is it warm in here or is it just me?"

"I'm fine," Enjolras said slowly.

"Must just be me then, which is strange because normally I'm always cold. It really annoys Cosette because I always have the heating on and then she gets too warm, it's hard to get the right balance you know?" She was rambling now and Enjolras was looking at her as though she had two heads. He probably thought she was high too. "But anyway," she said, desperately trying to compose herself. "I just, eh, wanted to talk to you about what happened between us, you know, a couple of weeks back."

"Oh right," he said, suddenly becoming very taken with Grantaire's floor. Eponine waited for a moment to see if he was actually going to look at her, but when it because apparent that he wasn't she just decided to get on with it.

"So anyway," she said, trying not to focus on the fact that she felt like she might actually be on fire, "I, um... I'm... yeah... I'm pregnant."

At first she thought he hadn't heard her. He didn't look up, he didn't even more. He just stood there, like a statue, staring at the floor. She waited for him to react, but there was nothing.

"Enjolras?" Eponine was slightly concerned. This had to be the longest time Enjolras had ever been quiet for.

"Me?" he said eventually. He was still staring at the floor.

"Yes, Enjolras. You."

"You're sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. I went to the doctor today and he confirmed what the little white pee sticks said."

"No," he said, finally looking up at her. "I meant are you sure it's mine? It's just I don't know who else you've been with, it mightn't even be mine."

He had just made it perfectly clear what he really thought of her. All that talk of his high morals and compassion and respect for women was just bullshit. He was just like the others. He got what he wanted and now he wanted nothing to do with the consequences. He was just standing there with this disgustingly smug expression on his face, looking at her like she was nothing, like she wasn't even worthy of his time.

"Am I definitely the only one it could be? You're sure there's nobody else?"

The more he kept repeating his point the more furious Eponine got. She was so angry at herself for ending up in this position, so pissed that she let her guard down. She could feel the back of her throat starting to burn and she knew she was going to cry. The last thing she wanted to do was to cry in front of him, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. She wanted him to stop talking, she didn't want to listen to anymore. She wasn't just going to stand there and let him speak to her like that. So she slapped him.

Enjolras jerked back in shock, holding onto his cheek which was already turning red where Eponine's hand had made contact.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself Enjolras."